Quick Answer
Shoe Inventory Management is the tracking of shoes according to size, color, style, SKU and position. It allows companies to keep track of their available goods, popular sizes, and when they need to reorder their inventory. Proper record keeping of inventory will minimize shortages and overstock situations.
What is Shoe Inventory Management?
The management encompasses all inventory functions from the point of receipt of footwear to selling them. This includes creating SKU, categorising the product, stocking locations, sales updates, returns, transfers, stock counting and reorders.
SKU should be created based on the specific product variation and not the total number of pairs available. For instance, a pair of black sneakers that fit size 8 should be created separately from one that fits size 9 or of a different colour.
What Information Should be Included?
For each SKU of footwear, there needs to be information including:
- Product name/style
- SKU number/stock code
- Category of the footwear
- Size and width (where applicable)
- Color
- Quantity of stock available
- Where the stock is located
- Date the stock was received
- Re-order point
- Supplier information/purchase order information
What makes it difficult to manage shoe inventory?
Shoe Inventory Management can be difficult to manage since each shoe model produces many variations. Take, for instance, a sneaker with six sizes and four colors; there are 24 possible combinations of size and color. There can be more combinations of SKUs if there are men’s, women’s and kids’ lines.
Moreover, demand fluctuates. One shoe size sells fast, but another one stays in the warehouse. Climate, holidays, regional tastes may affect customers’ demands.
If a company does not track the demand by variation, then it faces two inventory problems at once:
- In-demand sizes run out of stock even if the model seems to be in stock.
- Unpopular sizes stay in the warehouse.
Features an Inventory System for Shoes Should Contain
An efficient inventory system will give you accurate data without over-complicating your day-to-day activities.
1. SKU Matrix Maintenance
Size/colour matrix is a display of all variations of your shoes design in one matrix. With the help of a matrix, you will be able to visually compare the number of items of each variation.
It will allow you to easily see whether you have missing sizes, extra variations, and items in need of restock.
2. Barcode Scanning / RFID Scanning
The process of barcode scanning will help in improving your receiving, checkout, returns, and inventory counts.
GS1 India’s guidance on traceability explains how standardised product identification can improve supply-chain visibility and support better monitoring of overstocking and stockouts.
Barcode and RFID scanning can make Shoe Inventory Management faster and more accurate.
3. Alerts for Low Stock Levels
Alerts for low stock levels must be created for each SKU separately. Alerts for the size will assist business owners in re-ordering their most profitable sizes when they run out of stock.
4. Location-Wise View
For those businesses that run through multiple outlets or stores, the ability to view stock on the basis of locations would prove beneficial as they can check the availability of any size in other locations if it runs out at a specific location.
5. Detailed Inventory Reports
The reports for inventory must help business owners identify:
- Fast selling shoes
- Slow moving items
- Best selling sizes
- Stockouts
- Returned items
- Old inventory
- Location wise availability
How is Shoe Stock Management Done?
Consistency in your day-to-day operations will most likely be more accurate than solely relying on huge counts that are done periodically.
Step 1: Design an SKU for Each Different Type of Item
Have a standard way of generating your SKUs based on the type of footwear, style, color, and size of the item. This will ensure that there will be no confusion with the numbering of the products.
Step 2: Inspect Your Stock After Receipt of Order
Count and inspect the shoes before you sell them. Take note if there are shortages and/or damages.
Businesses purchasing B2B shoes should verify the received size ratios and product specifications rather than checking only the total number of cartons.
Step 3: Record Every Change in Stocks
Record all sales, exchanges, returns, damaged goods, and transfers. This is because any delay in recording will result in discrepancies in stocks between what exists physically and what the employees or clients see.
Step 4: Determine Reorder Levels
Reorder points should be determined based on:
- Past sales performance
- Existing stocks
- Lead time
- Seasonality
- Minimum order requirements
- Promotional considerations
Faster moving stock might need more stocking as compared to slower moving stock.
Step 5: Performing Inventory Counts
The inventory count in digital form needs to be checked against physical stock in the store/warehouse. Quick moving products may be counted more often.
These differences need to be traced out, and the usual causes are transfer not recorded, wrong carton placement, returned product, erroneous receiving.
How Should Footwear Sizing and Style Options be Planned?
Shoe stock planning starts even before making a large purchase order. It is necessary to evaluate the past sales and customer requests for determining what kinds of options will be appropriate.
All sizes should not be purchased in the same quantities without analysing the demand history. The purchase should not be also influenced by a single promotion results or a brief sales period.
Planning area | Questions to consider |
Size | What sizes always go well, and what size never sells? |
Style | What styles do well, stabilize or experiment? |
Color | What colors are always asked for by customers? |
Category | Are sneakers, sandals, slippers or clogs more in demand? |
Season | Does the weather, events, or schooling impact sales? |
Location | Does location play any role in purchase? |
Businesses can review broader wholesale footwear trends to understand changes in the market. However, final purchasing decisions should be based mainly on the retailer’s own customer requirements and sales data.
How Can Fast- and Slow-Moving Stock Be Determined?
Fast-moving stock will be sold consistently during the expected period. On the other hand, slow-moving stock will be unsold for a longer time than expected or will be available only in a few sizes.
Regular Shoe Inventory Management makes fast- and slow-moving stock easier to identify.
Ageing and variance reports on inventory make it possible for companies to differentiate between new stocks and old ones. However, the performance of a design must not be the sole criterion.
The performance of a design might be good even though there is one color that has not been sold.
Product performance should also be reviewed alongside fit, finishing and consistency. A shoe quality guide can help businesses understand which product checks may support more informed replenishment decisions.
Which Shoe Inventory Management Metrics Should Be Monitored?
A good Shoe Inventory Management strategy should rely on several useful metrics.
Sell-Through Rate
The sell-through rate metric indicates what percentage of the received goods was sold within a certain period. This can enable companies to evaluate the effectiveness of various styles, sizes, and colors.
Stockout Frequency
This metric will indicate how frequently a certain SKU gets out of stock. Frequent stockouts can point to the need to increase the reorder point or underestimate the demand.
Inventory Age
The inventory age metric indicates how long the certain item stays unsold. It will help to identify old products before they become difficult to sell.
Return Rate
Return rates will highlight some recurring issues related to sizing, description, quality, and customers’ expectations. Returns must always be registered in the inventory management system.
What Are Common Shoe Inventory Management Mistakes?
Common inventory mistakes include:
- Tracking a design without separating sizes and colors
- Ordering equal amounts of all sizes without reviewing the demand
- Recording sales but not exchanges and customer returns
- Not recording transfer from one store or warehouse to another
- Reordering depending only on total amount of particular style
- Using inconsistent SKU codes
- Neglecting aging and slow moving inventory
- Dependence solely on software without physically checking
- Purchase trending items without taking into account target market
- Granting employees access to inventory without proper training
Technology will not fix inconsistent data automatically. The same procedures of receiving, selling, returning and transferring need to be used in all parts of the business.
Conclusion
Shoe Inventory Management helps retailers and distributors in getting clear visibility of the shoe stock in terms of its size, color, style, and location. The system of inventory management involves an inventory process that includes SKU, stock receiving, barcodes or RFID, low-stock alert, count, and reorder based on sales.
The main aim of Shoe Inventory Management is to maintain the correct footwear at the correct location and time.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Which are the three types of inventories?
The three types of inventories are raw materials, work-in-progress and finished goods. The inventories managed by footwear retailers include finished goods organized by sizes, colors, styles and SKUs.
2. Explain the 80/20 rule for inventory.
According to the 80/20 rule, 20 percent of inventory might account for 80 percent of sales. It is important to use actual sales figures to determine these items.
3. Why should there be a different SKU for each shoe size?
A separate SKU supports accurate Shoe Inventory Management by tracking the availability and sales of every shoe size.
4. How Can Retailers Minimize Dead Stock?
Retailers can minimize dead stock by evaluating the age of products, avoiding multiple orders for poor variants and buying based on sales figures.
5. What is the Best Software for Inventory Management?
The best software will depend on the needs of the business. It must have SKUs, bar code capability, minimum stock alerts and multi-warehouse stock management.
6. What Software Do Most People Use for Footwear Design?
Shoemaster, Romans CAD, Illustrator and Rhino are commonly used for designing shoes and patterns.
